Daniel Smith-Thompson began his career in the bulk handling industry in 1998 as an apprentice with CRT Group, who at the time, Daniel says were the pioneers of the industry.
He spent some time on the team as an apprentice and then a welder, before deciding to take a Material Handling Engineering degree in Newcastle and venture into deep waters.
“CRT Group was a real drive factor towards that,” Daniel says. “They wanted to further my education in the field, and they wanted to see me through as a leader in that space for their company. From there it’s been constant innovation not only in the polymer handling industry, but in the mineral, mining and food industries as well.”
Since making this leap, Daniel has acquired 24 years of experience with engineering in materials handling, while specialising in warehouse storage, transfer distribution systems, design and project management.
A lot of his innovations, such as a major project for Sugar Australia, have revolved around making the tasks of operators more efficient and productive. This, along with having a large focus on labour savings and making delivery times more fluent and practical, has revolutionised the path that Daniel and his peers travel.
“There was a high focus at one stage with drivers working on the back of a semi at a height with major risks involved,” he says. “There was a lot of innovation when it came to the stair access, pop up handrails, and that full encapsulation of the operator himself.
“At one point, we were catering for large volumes of imported sugar. Being hydroscopic, the Sugar would absorb moisture during its shipping journey, and upon arrival, would have formed large solidified lumps. Because of this, operators were required to manually chisel this down to achieve the size required for fluent pneumatic conveying through to the customer’s silo.
“So, we invented a fitting that acted like a turnstile and re-crushed the sugar as it passed through to the conveying process,” Daniel explains. “That was a major win for the customer getting their product, and it also took away a lot of operator expectation and manual handling.”
Daniel is now a Bulk Materials Handling and Quality Specialist at Secon, where he has been given the task of leading the company into a new era of transport.
“My next big thing is to take the company where it needs to be and remodel its fleet in order to surpass the industry standard and set a new benchmark for this industry.”
Industry Innovators
Made possible by Smedley’s Engineers, Industry Innovators is a series dedicated to honouring the individuals who are transforming the commercial road transport industry.
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